Riverside 20: Another day, another disaster

[Zefir]

[DMside]

Weather is changing. The heat of the summer slowly cools down and afresh wind blows down from the north. It appears that the change from Summer to autum is nearby and this causes some movement in the district. A lot of helper arrive daily in the religious part of the city and start to work up on the streets. Banners got hung up the street, flowers got set around and some booths rise up out of nowhere. This affectes the daily work in the city park and even outsiders might take note of it when their order appears to be delayed.
Everyone who listens to the words will gather that there is a holiday in DMside whcih appears to be one of the Mayor holidays in the church in generell. Trucks with wine, food and other goods prommise to take good care of everybodys needs. The name of this holiday is "Breakthrough-Day"

[Ironsmith]

[Talman's Toys]

Well that's kind of annoying. What's up next? He can't find the owner and also doesn't find the commission he searched for. Are there any more rooms Mr. C could look at? For now he makes his move to the musik box, since this sis the last thing he can check now.

Talman's Toys

The music box clicks to a stop as Mr C approaches, its spring having finally run out. It seems to be a fairly basic design, lacking any of Talman's signature ornamentation, and instead consisting of an oak box roughly the size of a grown man's forearm, with a large brass key in the side and a square-ish inlay along the top.

[Shadowcaller]

[NEW PLOT - A Royal Visit]

Riverside has survived several disasters and this wouldn't be the first time they are invaded by rats but this time there does not seem to be any disease or AMEN behind them. These rats are just *******s. One day people just started finding traces of rats in food storage's and other places where food is kept, like inside people's homes.
At first it just seemed like something people could call an exterminator to solve but soon the problem was widespread. No one, not even the nobles of Malechenar or any of the faction leaders within the city, was safe from the rats who seemed to be able to get in almost everywhere. Finding the weak spots of any building and chewing through almost anything given enough time.

Poison and traps only ever seem to get a few of them and the sheer number of incidents seemed to suggest that their numbers seemed to be growing, not dwindling.
Finally, it would seem that another solution have to be found to the problem...

---

Plot Hooks

Spoiler: MERC Associated Characters Only

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MERC has set out to solve the rat problem on the behest of Malechenar. Any member can talk to Dena in the MERC Riverside office who apparently has some relevant information regarding the rats plaguing the city.
Start Tag: MERC Riverside Office

Spoiler: Hired by Malechenar (The lords of Northside)

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Malechenar is willing to pay anyone that has information about the rats or any way of dealing with them. Preferably in a non-violent manner so they don't have to clean up rat corpses anywhere or whatever super-poison that killed them afterwards.
Start Tag: Eventide Manor

Spoiler: Willing to kill rats for money?

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The Golden Dawn, a religious faction associated with money has taken an interest in Riverside's problem after the demonic invasion. They are willing to pay anyone handing in rat corpses to their grand hall in Westside.
Start Tag: The Grand Hall

Spoiler: Dealing with KABAL

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KABAL wish to get a foothold in Riverside and have figured that killing rats is a great way to accomplish that. They're trying to bring as many dead rats to the Golden Dawn as possible right now. Kelligan has ordered any KABAL member to be careful though. He does not wish to have a conflict with MERC in riverside as he's pretty sure KABAL would lose such a fight. Anyone can try to stop or aid them in their hunt for more rats. Perhaps their "rat hunters" might even know something useful?
Start Tag: KABAL Rat Hunting

Spoiler: A light in the darkness?

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The Burning Light believes that the rats are controlled by demons and are urging people to arm themselves and deal with the rats. How have they come to such a conclusion and is their belief dangerous or worth considering? Anyone investigating them might find out.
Start Tag:The Ruins of Light's Hearth.

Regardless of the hook, any character might try to track down rats on their own using the tag Tracking Rats with their characters name added to it.

[5a Violista]

[Tracking Rats - Harley]

Harley Zorzo, who lives in a poorer section of Riverside and currently shares her house with a large family, has been trying to deal with the rats in her spare time between maintaining all her various personas and disguises and infiltrating various groups.

...
Rats are annoying. In the first place, they're hard to catch. In the second place, they eat everything. In the third place, they carry diseases. She still has bad memories of that one time fighting against that disease-ridden rotting pirate.

Just when she is about to decide to do something drastic, she hears MERC has been hired to take care of them.
That's lucky.
One of her identities has a MERC license.

In the bathroom while all the family's children are out, she spends an hour trying to get make-up to conceal her scars. She alters her clothes, changes her face structure, puts her black hair in a braid, and makes her ears pointy.

Making sure she has her MERC license on her, she heads off to MERC's Riverside office.

=>
MERC Riverside Office

Holly, the Half-Elf, arrives at the Riverside Office in search of more information. She finds Dena, and asks her what's up about it. "Hey, can I help with the rats? I live around here, and they've really been a bother. Is there anything you know about them that hasn't already been on the news?"

[Zefir]

MERC Riverside Office

Maybe around the same time as holly comes up to Dena, Fade arrives as well. Thought he doesn't seem to just walk by. Instead he appears out of a near shadow in the room and people might not notice him until he speaks up. his voice still without and emotions.

"I'm bored. Word have reached me that there is a problem with rats. Killing doesn't seem to solf the problem, so they seem to kill the wrong creatures. I heared you might have something to start with."

The Grand Hall

A man, wearing some causal adventurer stuff heads over to the grand hall. behind him he drags a big back which partly drips blood. many rat corps can be found inside it most are sliced, smashed or seem to be impaled by a spear, but the man got no weapon at all.

"153" he says as he reaches the payment desk, guess he has to stand in line befor?

[Earl of Purple]

KABAL Rat Hunting

Two people, small-time villains from Skyside, have been hired by KABAL to aid the rat-hunt. The first is a slender woman, probably quite young, wearing a skintight yellow-and-purple costume and hiking boots, with a clown-mask on her face. She's carrying a revolver shotgun, so it rests on her shoulder and has a bandoleer to carry spare ammunition slung over her chest, which also has a sheathed knife. She's accompanied by a taller man, less colourfully dressed. He's got a black greatcoat on and dark trousers, with a hood and gasmask over his head. The gasmask has had the mouthpiece and filter cut away, revealing his mouth and chin. He carries a small-calibre rifle

They're hampered a little by the fact they've never been to Riverside before, so don't know the best places to find the rats. Instead, they've found a street dominated by restaurants, eateries and grocery stores, where they are currently hunting.

[Shadowcaller]

MERC Riverside Office . Dena's Office

Dena looks between the two behind her sunglasses. Why in the world was people so interested in catching rats of all the missions MERC had on their plate? Well, money was money she supposed.
She leans back in her armchair. "Right. I might have mentioned something to that effect to the boss." She addresses Holly and then turns to Fade. "And you're right, killing rats ain't gonna solve this problem. We gotta deal with whatever is causing this. My idea was to contact one of our license-holders that specialize in rats. Jaahlyn she's called, some kind of satyr or Faun..." Dena wiggles her fingers. "You know what I mean. Anyhow, so I called her and was essentially stone walled. She told us she was going to take care of the problem for free and that we should not get involved. When I tried to argue she simply declared that it was 'family business' and that she was 'bound' to deal with it. The rest of the conversation was just her apologizing for not being able to tell me more. Eventually I just gave up getting any more information from her." Dena shrugs. "So I'm figuring there is some magical rat-stuff that is going on here. I dunno what her family is like but there are more goat-legged people that can control rats they might be responsible for all of this." She looks between the two again. "So, do either of you know how to track down spellcasters or magic?"

The Grand Hall

The grand hall is a peculiar place. White marble blocks decorates its floors and walls, both internal an external, are each inscribed with a individual number that seems to follow one another numerically. The block inscribed with 1 can be found next to the blocks inscribed with 2, which is next to the block with the number 3 and so on.

Floating suits of armor guard the entrance and the velvet rope encased lines leading up to a desk that easily could be confused with a confession booth. Within, there is a sign that directs him to place the rat corpses in what seems to be a garbage chute that is placed within reach of the single chair within the booth. He can't see whose on the other side of the velvet curtain but a soft voice confirms his accomplishment. "Thank you, devoted."

Once the dead rats have been pushed down the chute they will quickly be counted. If he indeed has killed as many rats as he claims, a bag of money will be placed on the other side of the booth and be pushed over the counter to him. "Blessed be."

KABAL Rat Hunting

There are KABAL "rat hunters" crawling all over the city trying to chase down rats at the moment. So much so that it seems that store owners have hired other mercenaries to keep the other mercenaries away. This is evident when the two are approached by a whole group of troll mercenaries clad in MERC's colors. "Ey! Git out of here, man! Ya' only cause trouble for everyone."
The trolls are armed with a mix of modern weapons such as rifles and fantasy weapons such as throwing axes.

[Morty]

[The Ruins of Light's Hearth]

A visitor comes to the ruins as the rat plague is in full swing. He's an elf of pale complexion, bald, somewhat heavy-set and of medium height. He's dressed in a simple outfit of furs and leathers and his face is covered in odd black markings. He appears unarmed and carrying only a satchel. He seeks anyone who could direct him or give him information.

[Earl of Purple]

KABAL Rat Hunting

"Sure, we'll get out of here. Soon as the rats are dealt with. Till then, we're sticking around. Plenty of rats for everyone." The speaker is the girl, in her garish costume of yellow and purple. She holds her shotgun a little awkwardly; she prefers melee weaponry, but the rats are easier to dispatch at range and she wasn't going to carry a cricket bat and a shotgun; they'd get in each other's way.
"Flicker, honey? We were ordered not to antagonise MERC. We're outnumbered here, and outgunned. And I'm not feeling particularly bulletproof right now." The man in the altered gasmask reaches out to put his hand on his associate's shoulder; presumably she's Flicker.
"These goons don't scare me, Spewer. Sure, they're big, and there's lots of 'em, but I've faced worse." She moves to pump her shotgun, before remembering it's not a pump-
action and lacks the ability to make that particular threatening sound.
"I know, Flicker. I faced her too, the crystal lady with Shunt. But this isn't our territory, we don't know the lay of the land. We were told not to antagonise MERC, so back down. We'll find somewhere new to hunt, without these losers." He pulls on her shoulder, and attempts to lead them away. They'll both keep half an eye on the gang, though. Last thing they want is to be jumped by their employer's enemies in a strange town they don't know very well.

[Halae]

[NEW PLOT - A Royal Visit]

[Tracking Rats - The Ruins of Light's Hearth - Halae]

Not long after the half-elf, another arrival is here. A fiery-haired woman, on her hip is a large curved blade, and her body is encased in a well-crafted armor of some brassy-white metal. Her red eyes cast about the ruins, looking for whatever may be here, though she takes a moment to say to the elf, "Seems I wasn't the only one who decided to look into this."

She doesn't spare him much attention, though, instead intending to enter the ruins and pick about for whatever may be within.

[Zefir]

Spoiler: A Royal Visit

Show

MERC Riverside Office . Dena's Office

Dena looks between the two behind her sunglasses. Why in the world was people so interested in catching rats of all the missions MERC had on their plate? Well, money was money she supposed.
She leans back in her armchair. "Right. I might have mentioned something to that effect to the boss." She addresses Holly and then turns to Fade. "And you're right, killing rats ain't gonna solve this problem. We gotta deal with whatever is causing this. My idea was to contact one of our license-holders that specialize in rats. Jaahlyn she's called, some kind of satyr or Faun..." Dena wiggles her fingers. "You know what I mean. Anyhow, so I called her and was essentially stone walled. She told us she was going to take care of the problem for free and that we should not get involved. When I tried to argue she simply declared that it was 'family business' and that she was 'bound' to deal with it. The rest of the conversation was just her apologizing for not being able to tell me more. Eventually I just gave up getting any more information from her." Dena shrugs. "So I'm figuring there is some magical rat-stuff that is going on here. I dunno what her family is like but there are more goat-legged people that can control rats they might be responsible for all of this." She looks between the two again. "So, do either of you know how to track down spellcasters or magic?"

The Grand Hall

The grand hall is a peculiar place. White marble blocks decorates its floors and walls, both internal an external, are each inscribed with a individual number that seems to follow one another numerically. The block inscribed with 1 can be found next to the blocks inscribed with 2, which is next to the block with the number 3 and so on.

Floating suits of armor guard the entrance and the velvet rope encased lines leading up to a desk that easily could be confused with a confession booth. Within, there is a sign that directs him to place the rat corpses in what seems to be a garbage chute that is placed within reach of the single chair within the booth. He can't see whose on the other side of the velvet curtain but a soft voice confirms his accomplishment. "Thank you, devoted."

Once the dead rats have been pushed down the chute they will quickly be counted. If he indeed has killed as many rats as he claims, a bag of money will be placed on the other side of the booth and be pushed over the counter to him. "Blessed be."

KABAL Rat Hunting

There are KABAL "rat hunters" crawling all over the city trying to chase down rats at the moment. So much so that it seems that store owners have hired other mercenaries to keep the other mercenaries away. This is evident when the two are approached by a whole group of troll mercenaries clad in MERC's colors. "Ey! Git out of here, man! Ya' only cause trouble for everyone."
The trolls are armed with a mix of modern weapons such as rifles and fantasy weapons such as throwing axes.

MERC Riverside Office . Dena's Office

Maybe there aren't so many MERC missions around which makes peole bored. At least that's Fade's excuse. After Dena's question there will be something moving right where Fade came out. A moment later it appears like a femal elf emerges from the shadow, while she looks just ral, there is one thing diifferent. Her whole Body, sking, clothes and even eyes are all in a shadow grey color. like she felt into that specific color and never cleaned herself. The elf walks next to Fade who hasn't made any moevemnts yet. Suddendly the woman appears to melt, becoming a 'normal' shadow again, but not is connected to Fade.
After she is a shadow again fade holds his hand mumbling a few words. As he looks up again, his eyes erupt a blue light and he should be able to see magic around him.
"I can make myself see magic if that is enougth."

The Grand Hall

Impressiv. Those religions must really pay of. This is the second one he visited and neither appeared poor. Guess the god business is getting much money together.

The number of rats is indeed correct, thought they might have 1-2 misscounts due to split in half rats. While waiting for the counting he starts to talk to the person he can't see.

"Sooo, yeahh. What is this here all about? This is some kind of church right? What do you do with the dead rats?" Maybe he will be lead to someone else, but it never hurts to ask.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tracking Rats - The Ruins of Light's Hearth]

A memorial is being built on the location where Light's Hearth once stood. The mighty fortress now reduced to a crater which the city still haven't managed to fix.
Though even if the light now seemed broken more people than ever had gathered at the memorial.
But to anyone arriving here it quickly becomes clear that these people are not using the memorial for mourning the lives lost in the attack. No, these people are angry. They're angry about the rats within the city of course. But the real focus of their anger is demons. The demons that have killed so many people and ruined even more lives.

Which makes it even more bizarre when Tarim, the only of the servants of the burning light which wasn't at light's hearth when it was destroyed, is met by cheers as he approaches.

Tarim is a pit fiend, a race of demons which are the apparent leaders of the demonic hordes and no amount of shiny white armor that the servant wears is going to hide that fact considering his sheer size. But it seems like Tarim has somehow ascended his physical form in the eyes of these people to be seen as defender of the city rather than anything else.
Tarim stops as he reaches the memorial, right now but a simple large white stone which he towers over.
He turns to the crowd. "We have captured a demonic spy." He declares in a tone which does not invite cheers. He then holds up the scorched remains of a rat which must have remained in his armored fist. "And with that we've confirmed that these creatures are no mere rats. It's yet another attempt by the dark ones to invade this city." It sounds like he is about to pause and some people even shout angrily. But Tarim just cuts them off with his deep domineering voice. "But this time we're not going to passively wait for them to destroy us. We're going to go down to their nests and purge them all."

People cheer in agreement but the servant does not look particularly pleased with it. His eyes seemingly burning with bright yellow light which seem to indicate anger more than anything else. If there would be a moment to approach him, it would be now before he goes off to do whatever he was talking about. The circumstances are not the best though...

KABAL Rat Hunting

While that sound is threatening, you're also wasting ammo by doing it and to an experienced gun user you might just be making a fool of yourself. So perhaps it's better this way.
The trolls in contrast are not even aiming their rifles at the two mercenaries but they are posing with their axes which are weapons which have the benefit of not being able to go off by accident.
"Not here it ain't, mon. MERC protect tah people from rats and da' likes of ya'." The troll taps his head and grins. "Ya' get it, mon?"

They can see a rat coming out from a corner behind the trolls...

The Grand Hall

"We burn them, devotee." The soft voice replies. "But you are correct. This is a church. The church of money. We are responsible to make spread the wonders of money across the nexus."

[Halae]

[Tracking Rats - The Ruins of Light's Hearth]

Tarim will find himself approached by the fiery-haired Halae. While she's there, however, he may feel the essence that pours out of her into her weapon and armor; her spirit burns with a raw, primal fire that would seem like a miniature sun or boiling caldera to any who could feel it, hosted safely within the confines of this woman's soul. One may even get the sense that it's not yet as large as it could grow - Halae's still a young exalt by any reasonable measure.

"That was quite a speech," she starts, "But I couldn't help but notice that what you seemed to be holding there was just a rat, not a demon. I'm looking into the subject; what leads you to believe this is the work of demons?"

[Morty]

[Tracking Rats - The Ruins of Light's Hearth]

The elf approaches behind Halae, but says nothing for now. She asked the question he was going to ask so he'll simply wait for the answer.

[Earl of Purple]

KABAL Rat Hunting

Flicker isn't an experienced gunwoman. She much prefers melee weaponry, since it works better with the ability she bought off a strange fat man in a warehouse. She spots the rat, and decides that'll make a better answer. She speeds off- she's not got super-speed, though it looks like she does; she teleports a very short distance but does so very quickly- and unlimbers her shotgun as she goes. She'll stop moving standing over the rat, and will fire her shotgun at it. It's loaded with birdshot, which is also very effective against small mammals. If she hits, which given her unfamiliarity with firearms isn't guaranteed, even at such close range, she'll then pick up the hopefully-dead rat and flicker back over. "Looks like you're doing a great job of keeping the rats out of this area, huh? You might actually have got this one if you weren't so scared of us you couldn't confront us alone. As is, this is one for us, none for you." Even if the trolls have other rat corpses visible, sticking out of pouches or held in their hands, she says the same.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tracking Rats - The Ruins of Light's Hearth]

The fiend stops to look once someone addresses him. "Speeches are made to manipulate." He insists. "That was a summary." He gestures off into the distance. "The spy told me the rats were used as spies and this one possessed by a foul spirit, what more evidence could you possibly need?" He inquires as he holds up the rat corpse again which is lit aflame by the same yellow flames that can be seen in Tarim's eyes.
If Halea can tell such things, she won't be able to detect any kind of spirit or soul remaining in the rat however. "It's gone now though. It was within it when I caught it and left it the very same moment. No doubt to escape detection. I won't be fooled though. I know what I saw."

It seems like enough evidence for the mob who already seem to be gathering weapons to go off and... fight the rats?

KABAL Rat Hunting

That's some overkill right there. Depending on the type of shell, that could even be dangerous.

Not more dangerous than for the rat though which there isn't much left of. Might prove slightly difficult to turn that in.

The trolls unsurprisingly don't look pleased. "Ey! That's my kill, mon!" The troll shouts as he approaches in a threatening manner. "Back off! Go back to ya' hole in da' flying city, eh?"

[Zefir]

The Grand Hall

"We burn them, devotee." The soft voice replies. "But you are correct. This is a church. The church of money. We are responsible to make spread the wonders of money across the nexus."

The Grand Hall

Karl is not really statisfied by the answer, thought doing so might increase the reputation of them by both, people living in the city and mechenaries.

"Church of money?" he replies a bit confused. "Isn't that like a bank or something. I was told those are responsable for the money. Still I think people might get mad in this subject, because there is no Nexus Currency. Can you tell me more about what you mean by 'spread the wonders of money'? Sounds to me like you just hand over money to people."

Maybe they have some kind of market or tours or something since he can only assume that the wonders of money are the things you can buy with it.

[Halae]

[Tracking Rats - The Ruins of Light's Hearth]

"So you're going to go off half-cocked? What's your plan for killing the rats? They don't nest like some kind of insect with a queen; they infest buildings. It's why dark sorcerers and anathema make so much use of them - you can't get rid of them without burning down the city," Halae challenges Tarim, shaking her head, "No, you need a way to call and bind on of the spirits, and then extract information from it. That's something I can do."

Halae will reach for the rat, but make it clear that she won't take it if Tarim doesn't want her to. If he decides to spurn her help, that's his choice.

[Morty]

[Tracking Rats - The Ruins of Light's Hearth]

"There's no shortage of rats in the city for us to test such a hypothesis." The elf finally and suddenly speaks. "And possibly get down the source. Killing them one by one is very unlikely to accomplish anything."

[Shadowcaller]

The Grand Hall

"We ensure that you can trust money. That you keep believing in its worth. What we paid you, no matter the currency or material it is made of, its still worth something within the nexus despite it being made of of several completely different worlds. That, devotee, is nothing short of a true divine miracle wouldn't you agree? The miracle of our church." The voice replies. "Money is a divine gift that keeps all of civilization together and we serve it."

[Tracking Rats - The Ruins of Light's Hearth]

Tarim's eyes narrow. Perhaps not the best way to put that.
"The rats must have a controller. That's what we will be looking for as they're coming from down there." He gestures down at the street underneath their feet. "But if you can located it, why aren't you doing it? People's lives and livelihoods are at stake as long as these demonic forces infest our city." The servant thrusts the dead rat towards Halae.
He then looks at the elf as if expecting him to do something with the rat as well yet says nothing.

[Halae]

[Tracking Rats - The Ruins of Light's Hearth]

"Because I didn't have a previously possessed corpse until now," Halae says, indeed taking the rat. She'll then retreat from the group over to a still-intact piece of masonry, and lay it down. A bit of chalk taken from a pouch on her waist allows her to form a circle around it. Then, she sits down, her armor making clicking sounds as the plates rub together.

... and she just sort of sits there for a bit. Yes, she's gathering her power for the spell, but it's not an obvious thing just to look at.

[Morty]

[Tracking Rats - The Ruins of Light's Hearth]

"My method of determining the rats' allegiance requires a live specimen," the elf says as Halae walks away. "Or, preferably, many of them. I didn't think it wise to just go off on my own, however. Pooling resources with those already seeking the root of the problem seemed like a better first step."

[5a Violista]

Spoiler: MERC Riverside quotes

Show

MERC Riverside Office . Dena's Office

Dena looks between the two behind her sunglasses. Why in the world was people so interested in catching rats of all the missions MERC had on their plate? Well, money was money she supposed.
She leans back in her armchair. "Right. I might have mentioned something to that effect to the boss." She addresses Holly and then turns to Fade. "And you're right, killing rats ain't gonna solve this problem. We gotta deal with whatever is causing this. My idea was to contact one of our license-holders that specialize in rats. Jaahlyn she's called, some kind of satyr or Faun..." Dena wiggles her fingers. "You know what I mean. Anyhow, so I called her and was essentially stone walled. She told us she was going to take care of the problem for free and that we should not get involved. When I tried to argue she simply declared that it was 'family business' and that she was 'bound' to deal with it. The rest of the conversation was just her apologizing for not being able to tell me more. Eventually I just gave up getting any more information from her." Dena shrugs. "So I'm figuring there is some magical rat-stuff that is going on here. I dunno what her family is like but there are more goat-legged people that can control rats they might be responsible for all of this." She looks between the two again. "So, do either of you know how to track down spellcasters or magic?"

MERC Riverside Office . Dena's Office

Maybe there aren't so many MERC missions around which makes peole bored. At least that's Fade's excuse. After Dena's question there will be something moving right where Fade came out. A moment later it appears like a femal elf emerges from the shadow, while she looks just ral, there is one thing diifferent. Her whole Body, sking, clothes and even eyes are all in a shadow grey color. like she felt into that specific color and never cleaned herself. The elf walks next to Fade who hasn't made any moevemnts yet. Suddendly the woman appears to melt, becoming a 'normal' shadow again, but not is connected to Fade.
After she is a shadow again fade holds his hand mumbling a few words. As he looks up again, his eyes erupt a blue light and he should be able to see magic around him.
"I can make myself see magic if that is enougth."

[Tracking Rats - MERC Riverside Office Holly]

Holly the Half-Elf listens to all of Dena's talking and watches Fade do that fancy thing with the shadows and the lady.

It looks like...and elf? That makes Holly think to raise a arm to one of her ears to make sure she's still got pointy ears. Yup. Pointy ears. It's a pretty neat trick, though, with the shadow and all that stuff. "I can't do anything as fancy as that," she says.

...
Then, she adds: "But magic-users are still people and so it shouldn't be much different than tracking down anyone else." She seems confident.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tracking Rats - MERC Riverside Office]

Dena's eyebrow raise as the shadowy elven figure that appears. Fade certainly had abilities beyond her understanding. "You tell me Fade." She replies as she looks between the two. "You're both members of MERC which means that you must met some standards of competence." She smiles. "Or so I assume. But instead of telling you how to do your jobs I'm going to trust that you can use your abilities much better than I ever could." The gorgon leans forward. "What I can give you though is information. The city is currently seeing demons everywhere. Anyone with horns, hooves, creepy weird eyes and etcetera run the risk of being accused from what I'm told. Nothing much has happened about these accusations though but the word on the street is that many demon-related people have started to move out of Riverside. As if they're sensing blood in the water. So if you're going to use spooky magic, be low-key about it alright? Don't want people to think you're demons or whatever."
She takes a deep breath. "Furthermore, KABAL is all over this rat hunting business and are stirring up trouble all over the place as they're not above causing some property damage to catch a dozen rats. If you catch them doing anything of the sort, you have the legal right to arrest them but never sink to their level. We're currently being paid to act as law-enforcers after all so some standards have to be kept. Finally, the rat trouble started a little more than two weeks ago. If I were you I'd try to find out what happened then. Whoever entered the city at that date might just be responsible for this mess." There is a longer pause.

"Any questions on that?"

[Tracking Rats - The Ruins of Light's Hearth]

"I'm not prone to keep live rats anywhere." Tarim remarks, still sounding a tad irritated. "They're hard enough to kill, getting them alive is even harder. They're more clever than your ordinary rats, that's for sure and I'm a general and warrior, not a catcher of rats." He turns to look at Halae. "Perhaps she can help you once she's done. Or alternatively you can ask the people of the city for one of their clever traps."

[Earl of Purple]

KABAL Rat Hunting

Well, now Flicker knows to stand further away next time she shoots one. Maybe she should have started off with an air rifle; too late now, however. "If this one's your kill, how come I killed it?" She dangles the corpse in front of the troll that spoke before using her rapid-fire teleportation to move a few metres back. "As for holes in the flying city... I don't plan on living there forever. But to move out for good requires money, money requires work and work, today, involves killing rats... No matter how big they may be."

Spewer's had enough of this, however, and takes advantage of the distraction his girlfriend is unwittingly providing to use his own super-power. He opens his mouth and burps before a stream of warm yellow goo is propelled out of his mouth at the trolls. He's aiming for their ringleader, but he'll move his head to try and splash some of the disgusting liquid on each troll. Those that get hit will find themselves hit with an emotional attack, triggering pants-wetting complete and utter terror, enough terror to trigger the fight-or-flight reaction. Spewer's hoping for flight, since they're in a wide open space and there's lots of room to flee, but he's not met a troll before. And some individuals may respond with fight instead of flight anyway, as some people just do.

[Morty]

[Tracking Rats - The Ruins of Light's Hearth]

"That does sound like a start," Amalungak says, seemingly unfazed by Tarim's irritation. "I will go see what the lady with the rather large sword manages to ascertain." He nods and leaves to do just that.

[Shadowcaller]

KABAL Rat Hunting

Most normal people choose to flee rather than fight unless they're backed against a corner and once they're splashed with the yellow goo two of the trolls turn to flee. However, their species is infamous for one thing in particular, namely berserking. Which is exactly what the other two trolls are doing.
"GRUAAAAHHH!!!" The leader trolls run right after Flicker and attempts to swing his axe at her while the other one fires her rifle at Spewer which is apparently a thing one can do even while berserk.

[Tracking Rats - The Ruins of Light's Hearth]

"Hmph, who are you people anyway? You look like newcomers. Most people around here can't pull fancy magical tricks like that." Tarim remarks as he follows Amalungak as he moves towards Halae.

[Earl of Purple]

KABAL Rat Hunting

Flicker is hard to catch, using her fake-speed to stay just ahead of the troll chasing her. She could go faster, and likely will... Once they're a long distance from Spewer, who can't escape as easily. She makes sure he stays focused on her by turning slightly so she can keep an eye both on the troll and where she's going (the direction she faces doesn't affect the direction she can move in) and blow a raspberry at him, before taunting him in various ways.

Spewer, meanwhile, finds somebody trying to shoot him. So he pulls an electric cattleprod from under his coat and rushes in to try and get beyond the muzzle of the rifle, which is theoretically safer. He manages to dodge the first bullet, though he wishes he was wearing ear defenders, and will also try to jab the rifle-troll as many times as possible.

[Morty]

[Tracking Rats - The Ruins of Light's Hearth]

"My name is Amalungak and I come from the Taarik clan, far away from here," the elf explains. "I am a mystic, or a witch as some would call it. As for the sword-wielder, I do not know. But there's considerable power within her."

[Gullara]

[KABAL Rat Hunting]

In the midst of the conflict, a figure drops out of the sky. Or perhaps just off a rooftop. With her decent comes a splash of water. Two concentrated bursts of water are flung directly in the faces of the two berserking trolls. A more finessed whip of water tries to take Spewer's feat out from under him. Flicker likely just gets splashed.

The figure is a woman in roman-esque armour and weilding a stringless bow. The trolls had no doubt heard of the vigilante, though the Kabal members will be far less familiar. "If you thugs want to have a gang war, take it out of my city." She warns as the water she'd thrown out starts to draw back toward her.